Word: hammett
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...that summer I had read four of the five novels Hammett had written. They were certainly easy to come by. Every bookstore or newspaper stand in Europe seemed to sell them, and in addition to the English editions, I noticed that there were always translations available...
...decided to read the one Hammett novel I had been saving, holding in reserve for some emergency. I went to the Coop to buy it, and although they had a whole wall of mysteries, they had no Hammett. Running from bookstore to bookstore, I quickly discovered that there was simply no place in Cambridge that sold Hammett...
...still not sure why Hammett is so much more popular in Europe than in his own country. Perhaps it is that Hammett, like rock and roll and juke boxes, Ford Galaxies and Johnnie Guitar, is something we assume but never really stop to appreciate...
There is a lean, wry quality to Hammett's writing that is unique. There is nothing superfluous. In The Thin Man. Hammett describes the hosts of a dinner party that Nick Charles reluctantly goes...
...Hammett established a character type that dominated American mystery writing, and still reappears in one form or another in James Bond, Matt Helm, and the rest of the gang. But Hammett's characters, Sam Spade, Nick Charles, and the others, were different from their modern apostles. Because they were more than detectives, smart, tough guys. They were people that you really wanted to meet, to talk to, to learn from, and later go with to the local bar and have a great time...